Until Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan was put to trial before a Turkish judge in 1999, it was perceived that the whole point in this more than three-decade-long war with the Turkish state — which cost more than 30,000 dead — was all for establishing an independent Kurdistan taking land from Turkey.
When Ocalan said during the hearings that he had been fighting for cultural and linguistic rights, it came as a surprise. Many wondered whether it would be really possible to persuade Kurdish men and women to go up into the mountains for reasons other than seeking independence.
